Bernard Savage, the European Union Ambassador to Sri Lanka, informed the media on Tuesday that the EU would not be able to deploy elections observers for the presidential election due to budgetary and time constraints.

Elections Commissioner Dayananda Dissanayake had earlier requested the EU and various international organizations to deploy elections observers. Asked for the EU’s response to Mr. Dissanayake’s request, the EU ambassador said that they could not respond positively because of these constraints. However, Mr. Savage said they hoped to respond positively on the deployment of observers for the parliamentary elections.

But according to the executive Director of the PAFFEREL Organization Mr. Rohana Hettiarachchi it had been decided to obtain services of 6,500 foreign and local election observers for the upcoming Presidential Elections scheduled for next month.